PEOPLE have been urged to stick to their coronavirus vaccination appointment times as queues begin to grow outside vaccine centres across south Essex.

The George Hurd Centre, in Basildon, and Highlands Surgery, in Leigh, both had large numbers of people lining up outside waiting to be given their potentially lifesaving jab.

Councillors in Southend and Basildon have welcomed the keen attitude of residents wanting the vaccine, but have urged people to keep within their appointment window to keep the queues down.

Basildon Tory councillor David Harrison received his vaccine on December 21 and felt marshalling outside centres needs to improve.

He said: “It’s important if people have got an appointment time to get vaccinated, they keep it.

“I think the marshalling outside of the centres does need to improve.

“When I had my vaccination done at the Nevendon Centre, on that particular day there wasn’t any marshalling and there was quite a long queue. The problem was cars trying to get in and out of the car park causing more problems than anything.

“Once inside, there was nothing wrong with the vaccination process at all. That was perfect.”

Mr Harrison stressed the importance of getting the vaccine, but only if you have an appointment.

He added: “I did hear on one occasion in Wickford where there were people going in on the off chance of getting a vaccination and that was causing some problems.

“I would hope that all these people in the queues are actually ones that have appointments and not other people trying to get in to get a vaccination.”

“I think the important thing is that people get their vaccinations. The more people we get vaccinated, the quicker we get out this situation hopefully.”

Southend councillor Trevor Harp added: “The only time there should be any queues outside is if there’s any delays within the actual vaccination centre itself.

“It’s positive that people are coming out to get the vaccination.

“We would encourage anybody who has been asked to attend a vaccination to do so.

“But it’s important that people attend within the appointment window that they’ve been given rather than turning up too far in advance of their appointment times.

“That would help with the queues.”

William Guy, Alliance Director for Basildon and Brentwood said: “This is the biggest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and it is natural for a programme of this scale to occasionally have some teething problems, but we are working hard to make the process as smooth as we can for local people coming in for their vaccinations.

“We are looking forward to inviting more of the local community for their vaccine as the programme is rolled out in the weeks and months ahead.”